Dying Secrets
by Extinction Of The Gummy Bears
Summary: Basically this is another one of Extinction's self-inserts. This is dedicated to Kimmy, who begged for a Lotr Fanfiction about her and her friends. Full explanation inside. Tabi and her friends are kidnapped by a mysterious grey wizard, all because of a dream. The dreams that are plaguing the friends will either lead to their ultimate destruction of Middle-earth, or it won't.


Okay, so this is another self-insert story. Yes, yes Extinction already has one, blaah, blaah, blaah... this one is for my dear Kimmy. She begged me to write one about our group of friends, rather than my ex-friends. And I told her if she got into her first choice of college I would write a LoTR story for her. So, congratulations Kim, I expect lots of good food and recipes to come home with you this Christmas. So I hope you enjoy this dearie. Now, my lovely readers, this story is going to be about myself, Kimmy, and our friends in Middle-earth, trying not to die, trying not to kill each other and most importantly, trying not to make Legolas off himself. No, just kidding about the Legolas thing.

Anyways, this is a story about a group of friends thrust into Middle-earth, to aid in the defeat of Sauron. So overdone, but who really cares right? You're just looking for a good read, and I'm just looking to not kill myself out of boredom this summer, as well as grow my craft. So let's all have fun with this here story, shall we?

_Dying Secrets: Chapter 1: In the Dark of the Night_

_I looked out the window at the frozen tundra of my 'home'. The sun cast a frozen light over the ice that covered the yards of my neighbors, the field, and the train tracks. The house was warm and flooded with a cozy light that everyone dreams of coming home to after being out in the cold. Hot food was on the table behind me, though I couldn't smell it. Silverware clinked on plates as my family sat down to dinner, but I was focused on staring out the screen door at the glass-like land before me. _

_Seeing someone walk out from my peripherals, I jumped. I large man in black slacks, a rams sweatshirt, and a bald head crossed my yard, walking past the old swing-set and out into the icy field. Mister Breadlow? What was my high school principle doing in my yard? I hadn't the slightest, but I wanted to find out. _

_I turned to my family and said, "I'm going to follow Breadlow." They didn't seem to hear me, so I shrugged it off and opened the door to follow him. _

_I don't know how I got there, but I did. I walked into the high school. On the inside it looked very much like a bustling law-firm. The walls were all painted a silky-red color, the floor made from black marble, tall stairs and elevators that went to an unknown height. People who I recognized from the halls of the school were dressed in nice clothes, pencil skirts, blazers, and slacks. _

_I saw Breadlow walk into a tall room, done in the same fashion that the rest of the building was. As I followed him into the room, the giant wooden doors slammed shut behind me. For some reason, I was expecting that. My heart beat speed up. Breadlow had disappeared. I looked around and saw stairs leading up to a room, and I knew he had gone up those stairs. _

_I walked over to the stairs, where an oddly dressed woman stood holding a rope across the way. She had black hair, cut into a Bob style. On her head she wore a red and yellow jester's hat, and a matching outfit. _

"_You can't go up there," she said, though it sounded like a pathetic old man's voice. The voice reminded me of a snake. Something that slinked it's way around, unnoticed. A deceiving voice. _

"_Please," I said. "I need to talk to Breadlow." I didn't know what about, but I suppose I just knew I had to. _

"_Make it quick," she said, letting me up. _

_I went up one flight of stairs, on to a platform, turned left and went up another set of stairs. I made another left to go down the hallway to the wooden door. With every step I took, my feet got heavier and heavier. I was dreading something. _

_I got to the door and before I could knock, the door flew open. But it wasn't Breadlow who stood there, but a man dressed in white robes, with a white, peppered beard. 'SARUMAN!' My mind screamed. I started to back away from him, down the hallway. He advanced on me. As he started coming at me faster and faster, I tripped, sending myself sprawling on the stairs._

_As I caught myself on the railing, the stairs started to shake and then move to left. "What is this? Harry Potter?" I thought to myself. But I really didn't care, Saruman was still on the landing and I was on the stairs. _

_I tried to pull myself up, but I just couldn't seem to do it fast enough. It felt like five minutes had passed before I was on my feet, and running down the rest of the stairs. The woman at the bottom of the stairs had been replaced. A man in black robes, and greasy black hair had taken her place. My mind told me that this had been a trap. A trap set my Saruman and his infamous snake of a lackey, Gr__í__ma._

_I took off running the second I got to my feet. But it just wasn't fast enough. My feet seemed to be made of lead, and I felt like I was running in sand. Gr__í__ma tried to block my path, but I flew passed him, knocking him into the wall. I turned around to look over my shoulder in time to see Saruman tackling me. _

_We went sprawling to the floor, my breath knocked out of me. I rolled over onto my back, leaving myself very vulnerable. Saruman got on top of me and his hands went tightly around my throat. He was laughing like a mad man as he squeezed. I didn't want to go like this. I never wanted to go like this. I dug into his beard with my hands, going for his throat in return. I found his neck, but my fingers wouldn't work. I was beginning to feel numb all over. Blackness started to creep into my vision as my arms fell limply to the floor. The last thing I remember seeing is the madness is Saruman's eyes, and Gr__í__ma cheering and fist-pumping in the background. _

I flew up into a sitting position, gasping for breath. My lungs burned, my neck ached, and my head was spinning. I closed my eyes and gripped the sheets of the bed, taking deep breaths. My heart was pounding so hard my chest hurt. I threw my legs over the side of the bed, and turned on my lamp. The other side of the bed was empty. Joe must still be either in the living room playing a video game or taking his nightly shower. I didn't hear the water running, so it was probably the former.

Shrugging it off, I slipped my feet into my mock converse slippers, picked up my sweatshirt, and slipped into the warm grey fluff of it. I grabbed my pack of cigarettes and slipped out the sliding door at the far end of the room. I stepped onto the balcony and I shivered. The cool night was heavy with the scent of rain. I pulled out a cigarette and leaned over the balcony as I lit up. I sucked in, the hot smoke filling my lungs. As I exhaled I watched the smoke drift up into the sky. Thunder echoed around the apartment building.

I heard the screen door behind me slide open and Joe stepped out onto the balcony as well. He smelled fresh out of the shower. I was wrong; he must've just been getting out of the shower when I awoke.

"What's wrong, babe?" he asked, grabbing my pack and confiscating a cigarette.

"I had that fucked up dream again," I replied.

"How did it end this time?" he asked, flicking the lighter to life.

"I was starting to black out," I shivered. "I get closer to death each time."

"I'm sorry babe," he comforted, putting an arm around my back.

"What am I going to do about this dream?" I asked.

"See a psychiatrist?" Joe offered.

I turned and looked at him. "We are far too poor for that, babe." He shrugged in agreement and took a drag. I took a drag and looked out over the damp parking lot. Lighting flashed above the tree line and a breeze loaded with the scent of rain hit us. "Am I crazy, babe?" I asked. "Be honest."

"No, you just have fucked up dreams," he replied.

"Thanks. Thank you so much," I replied sarcastically.

He laughed and kissed my cheek. "You should have a girl's day with Kimmy, Raven and Cate tomorrow," he said.

"Hmm," I was all I replied with.

We leaned against the balcony in silence until we finished our cigarettes. "You think you could go back to sleep?" he asked as we crawled into bed.

"What time is it?" I asked through a yawn.

Joe looked around me to the green digital clock on the bed stand. "Quarter 'til five," he replied.

I groaned and rubbed my face. "It's incredibly doubtful," I mumbled.

"Well," he yawned. "Don't wake me up until noon then."

"Kay," was all I said, as I got up and went into the living room.

I sat down on the couch and took control of the laptop. Maybe I will have a girly day with Kim and Raven…

**O.o.O**

The girl's day out turned into: let's-pack-everyone-into-Tabi's-car-and-go-to-the- mall day. Why it's always my car I will never know. Seven people in a small car may work well for clowns, but not in the world outside of the circus. And I'm pretty sure clowns are deranged mass murderers. Regardless, last night's dream was soon forgotten about as all of us walked around looking at all the nice things we couldn't afford.

The seven of us met up at the Barnes & Noble Starbucks café at about eight-thirty. Joe and I were first there, eager to get a coffee fix from the lack of sleep the night before. Drew and Cate were next to show up, with loads of CD's and movies. Cate's addiction. Spencer and Jerry showed up next with sacks full of games and models from the sound and looks of things. Travis, Kimmy and Raven were last, looking like they had decided to supply a whole army with candy, Raven's doing no doubt.

Kimmy sat down between me and Travis, her boyfriend. Almost instantly as the others sat down, Joe irrupted into a loud conversation about a rumored Deadpool movie coming out next year. Needless to say the four guys were extremely excited and got increasingly louder.

People started to look over at us from the aisles of books. And I felt a flame of embarrassment for being associated with the loud guys. Kimmy and Cate were smiling awkwardly at the passersby who looked more than a little annoyed. And Raven had her face buried in her arms, hoping no one she knew would see her. "I enjoy how they fail to realize that we are in a book store," I said to the girls.

"I know!" Raven complained leaning her head on her fist. "Guys, can you please be quiet. I have a headache."

"You always have a headache," Kimmy replied.

"Yeah, you act like you do shit all day," I joked.

"I'm hungry," Raven replied.

"I offered to buy you a cheesecake brownie," Cate told her.

"I don't like cheesecake," she said.

"You never like anything," Kimmy replied.

"That's not true, Kim!" Raven snapped. "I like Drew's Teriyaki and Tequila chicken wings."

"You guys almost make me grateful I have a brother. Almost," Cate and I commented in unison.

At this the sisters laughed. And then the guys irrupted into loud laughter as well.

"I think we're gonna be here for a while," Raven said.

I nodded in agreement and slowly reached over to Kim's bag of candy that was sitting on the table. I gently pulled it over in front of me. The tiny blonde girl had so far noticed nothing. I started going through it, finding small boxes of Skittles, Starbursts, and Milk Duds. But at the bottom I saw something that surprised me. A box of Crows.

I pulled the box out and shoved it into Kimmy's face. "What the hell is this?" I asked.

"Black licorice candy," Kimmy said. I had completely caught her off guard.

"Black licorice, you say?" I asked.

She looked around, "yes," she said slowly.

"And this is why I can't trust you," I replied, throwing the box back into the bag.

Time in the bookstore passed quickly, by the time we were kicked out, it was closing time for the whole mall. Where we had parked the whole lot was deserted on the west side of the mall.

"What time is it?" Joe asked.

"Ten fifteen," Drew replied.

"Uughhh, I'm tired," Raven whined. Joe and I exchanged looks.

"Where'd we park?" I asked.

"Tabi, it's your car," Jerry said.

"I don't keep track of that shit," I replied.

"We're the only car on this side of the mall," Joe said, pointing to the purple car that sat at the far end on the parking lot.

I looked at it hopelessly. "Can someone carry me?" I asked. I got a collective round of "no's". I groaned as I looked towards my car.

The purple car sat under a street light that began to flicker. I began to dig in my purse for my lanyard as we walked toward the car. This was not the thing I needed to see before I began a long, paranoid drive home, to go to sleep even more paranoid than I already would be. I followed the rest of the group, who were already walking ahead of me.

Paranoia had been a more prominent problem in my life for the past month. I always felt I was being watched, followed. So when I heard a sound of clinking metal and heavy breathing off behind me and to the left, I felt my heartbeat speed up, and my hands started to get sweaty. I decided not to look over my shoulder. More times than not, nothing was there, and if there was, it was a normal human being, about to pass me on the street.

I hurried and closed the gap between me and my friends. Closer and off to my right I thought I heard the sound of boots and a cane tapping over the concrete. I shivered and ran up to the front of the group, and took Joe's hand.

"Paranoid?" he asked.

"Just a bit," I replied, glancing over my right shoulder. I thought I saw a shadow slip behind the bushes that grew outside of the parking lot. "Just not sure I can drive…"

We made it to the car just then, and I unlocked the doors so everyone could climb in. I gave the parking lot a once over before I plopped into the car and slammed the door shut. I turned the lights on and started the engine. It rumbled to life just as there was a hard shake that shook the whole car violently, and the squeal of iron ripping into metal. There was a yelp from the girls in back, followed by a chorus of "what the hells" and "what the fucks".

As I turned to look back there was a dark face in the rear window, grinning with yellow fangs that dripped with saliva. The heavy breathing fogged up the window. Everyone else turned and looked. "What. The fuck. Is that?" Travis asked.

"A zombie, vampire thing," Spencer said.

"DRIVE! DRIVE! DRIVE!" came the screams of everyone in the car.

I threw the car into drive and slammed the gas petal to the floor. The tires screeched as the car skidded out of the parking space. There was a loud stomp on the back of the car, followed by the sound of iron on metal again. I heard Drew and Jerry screech and I saw a machete looking thing sticking in from the roof.

"TURN!" Joe screamed. I turned around and saw we were heading straight for a light pole and I made a sharp turn to the left before seeing another figure in front of us.

Everyone screamed at the robed figure and I made a sharp turn to the right that time. As the car settled into the motion of moving forward, there was a bright flash of blue lighting from behind us, followed by an incredibly loud crash of thunder. The car skid to a sudden stop, and everyone was jolted forward. I thanked the Lord that Joe had actually remembered to put his seatbelt on when he got in the car. However it didn't seem like Jerry was as lucky. It felt like his face had slammed into the back of my seat.

The car seemed dead. There was not rumble of the idle; the lights weren't even on anymore. I attempted to start the car again, but the engine wouldn't turn over. "What's wrong with car, Tabi?!" Kimmy asked in a panicked voice.

"Do I look like a mechanic?" I snapped.

We were all startled by Joe's yelp, and he pointed out my window. I shrieked as I saw a bearded face looking in at me. I tried to roll down the window, but of course that didn't work. I opened the door, and the old man smiled.

"Everyone alright?" he asked, in a deep, slightly raspy voice.

I nodded, however Jerry groaned out a 'no'. I looked back to him to see that he was holding his mouth and a bit of blood dripped through his hand.

"Who are you?" I asked.

The elderly man chuckled, but his pointy blue-grey hat on, and beckoned for us all to get out of the car.


End file.
